Bruce Braley on Principles & Values

Democrat

Apologizes for denigrating Senator as farmer & not lawyer

Last week, video was published in which Iowa Democratic Rep. Bruce Braley denigrated Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley as "a farmer from Iowa who never went to law school." Braley suggested that made Grassley unqualified to be chairman of the Senate Judiciary
Committee, a position he is in line for if Republicans regain control of the Senate in November.

The speech was made to a group of lawyers; Braley himself is a trial lawyer. But the backlash was severe, and Braley apologized.

In an opinion piece published in The Iowa Republican, Senator Ted Cruz (R,TX), a lawyer himself, touted Grassley and his accomplishments in the Senate. "Washington would be a lot better off if we had more farmers in
Congress and a lot fewer trial lawyers," Cruz writes. "I served on the Senate Judiciary Committee, and in my opinion Chuck Grassley--that Iowa farmer whom Braley was denigrating--would make an outstanding chairman of that committee," he went on.